


Rough Draft

by ovk



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/F, Fluff, Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-06
Updated: 2017-01-06
Packaged: 2018-09-15 03:51:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9217466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ovk/pseuds/ovk
Summary: (Platonic!)Reyna/Annabeth university AU. Reyna gets annoyed that Annabeth is always in the library. Then she gets less annoyed.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Could be interpreted either as platonic or as a hint to future romance, so whatever floats your boat!
> 
> Based on a true story. (Kind of. It pretty much started out as my immature way of expressing my annoyances with my uni library.)

Whenever Reyna went into the library, she was there.

At first it was annoying. It was a relatively quiet, unknown corner of the otherwise crowded library. Reyna felt a twitch of irritation whenever she walked in to see this girl already sitting at the cluster of computers. Reyna came here for peace and quiet, and, as far as she was concerned, having even one other person in the immediate vicinity immediately killed the peace and threatened the quiet. But she needed to use the computers, so her choices were either to spend her time in the main wing of the library, which reeked of sweat and snacks people had the gall (or stupidity) to munch on right next to the “NO FOOD” signs, or to accept the seeming ever-presence of the blonde girl in this less popular corner. She chose the latter.

At least she usually arrived before the blonde girl. Reyna loved mornings, and would come into the library right at the eight o’clock opening every weekday. As the majority of other students were either in class, still in bed, or only just dragging themselves to school at that time, Reyna’s corner of the library was blissfully silent for the first hour or so of each day, before other people began to trickle in. The blonde girl usually came at around ten on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and not until noon on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Reyna figured the girl must have class on those days. Not that she was paying attention to that.

Reyna typically left the library for five or six hours in the afternoons to go to class, hit the gym, and eat dinner, but when she came back in the evenings, the blonde girl was always still there. This irritated Reyna, too. Didn’t the girl have better things to do than sit, zombie-like, at the computers all day? At least Reyna had some smug satisfaction whenever the girl was sitting in front of her, leaving her frequent diversions to social media websites open for Reyna to see. Reyna was pleased that she had no such trouble focusing on her work.

Reyna usually left the library about an hour before its ten p.m. closing. The blonde girl was usually still sitting there by the time she left. Fridays were always awkward, though. Instead of closing at ten, the library closed at six on Fridays, and both Reyna and the girl were often herded out together by the librarians, who were eager to head home  for the weekend. Those were the only times that Reyna ever felt a sense of camaraderie with the girl, however tenuous, and that was only because of their shared plight of having to leave the library early.

One Friday, on their way out of the library, the blonde girl tripped on the bottom stair and tumbled to the floor, her small stack of books flying to the ground with startling thuds, and her arms reaching out to break her fall. She immediately began to pick herself up, obviously embarrassed.

Reyna silently descended the last few stairs, and then bent down to pick up the girl’s books. They were all books about classics—Reyna’s own major. She stacked them neatly and handed them to the blonde girl as the latter got to her feet and brushed the dust off her hands, her face flushed with embarrassment.

“Are you all right?” Reyna asked concernedly. “That was quite a spill.”

“I’m fine,” the girl said, putting on a smile that seemed genuinely cheerful, but was obviously meant to hide her mortification. “Thanks.”

She took the books back from Reyna, and her fingers brushed against Reyna’s as she did so. Reyna shuddered. She hated physical contact.

“No problem,” Reyna muttered, averting her eyes.

The girls made the rest of the trek out of the library in silence, although they were walking side by side now, rather than their usual single file. Reyna was considering mentioning the books that the other girl had dropped, because they just so happened to be the books that Reyna had been wanting to read for her thesis project on the fall of the Roman Empire. The library’s only copies had been out for weeks. Now Reyna knew who had them.

Reyna cleared her throat uncomfortably as the girls walked out the large glass sliding doors into the brisk evening air. “I, uh—saw you have some books on the fall of the Roman Empire.”

“Yes…” the other girl said slowly, turning curiously to look at Reyna.

Reyna adjusted her eyes away from the blonde girl’s scrutiny, looking at a point over her shoulder. “It just caught my eye because I’m writing my thesis about that.”

“Oh,” the girl said, brightening with excitement. “That’s so cool! Are you a history major?”

“I’m doing a double major with history and classics, actually,” Reyna clarified. “There’s some overlap, I guess. How about you? I haven’t seen you in either of those departments—”

“I’m actually studying mechanical engineering,” the girl said. “These books are just for a research paper for a writing class. I’ve always been interested in classical history, which is why I decided to write about it for this class. Maybe you can help me with my paper, or read it when I’m finished. You must be an expert on this stuff compared to me.”

“Oh,” Reyna said, taken aback. She wasn’t used to being asked for help or advice. Actually, she wasn’t used to being talked to at all, except by her faculty advisors. “Sure.”

The other girl frowned for the first time since they’d started their conversation, and Reyna winced. She must have sounded very unenthusiastic about reading this girl’s paper. So she hastened to say, with as much enthusiasm as she could muster, “I mean, yes. I’d love to read your paper.”

The blonde girl brightened again. “Thanks,” she said. “It’s due in two weeks.”

They stood in silence for about ten seconds, avoiding eye contact, their conversation having apparently run out. Reyna was awful at both terminating and prolonging conversations, but the blonde girl seemed to be, too, so Reyna took it upon herself to say, “Well...I guess I’d better get going.”

“Oh,” said the blonde girl.

“So…”

“I’m sure we’ll see each other again,” the blonde girl said, smiling. “You always seem to be here when I’m here.”

“Yep.”

Reyna turned to leave, but the other girl called out to her. “Sorry, what’s your name?”

“Reyna,” Reyna replied.

“I’m Annabeth.”

They shook hands.

“Well...I’ll see you around, Reyna. Have a good weekend.”

“Thanks. You, too.”

* * *

 

The entire next week passed in much the same way Reyna’s weeks always did. Every day she went to the library, went to class and the gym, went back to the library, and then went home. And every day, the other girl was also there. The only difference now was that the girls smiled and waved at each other whenever they came in and left. Now that Reyna had met Annabeth, knew her name, and had had a brief conversation with her in which she found out that she was interested in classics, she found her presence slightly less irritating, which is to say, the silence in the library felt more companionable than it did competitive or tense.

On the Friday a week after their first meeting, Reyna packed up her things and left the library about ten minutes before the librarians could get the chance to shoo her away.

On her way out the sliding doors, she heard a voice call after her. “Reyna!”

She turned. It was Annabeth, jogging to catch up with her. “Hi, Annabeth,” Reyna said.

“Hi,” Annabeth said breathlessly as she came to a halt. “You remember how I was writing a paper about the fall of the Roman Empire?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, I finished it.”

“Oh.” Reyna scratched her head. “I thought you said it was due next week.”

“It is,” Annabeth agreed. “I just finished a draft early.”

“Oh.” Reyna frowned, not sure what she was supposed to say. Then she remembered the previous week’s conversation, and quickly added, “Do you, uh, want me to read it?”

“Oh, yes, if you’d like to,” Annabeth said. “You shouldn't feel like you have to, but if you're interested…”

“I’m definitely interested,” Reyna said.

She missed Annabeth’s blush.

“Maybe we can exchange emails, and you can send it to me?” Reyna suggested.

“Sure,” Annabeth agreed.

Annabeth took out her phone and made a few taps and swipes before saying, “Okay. What’s your email address?”

Reyna gave it to her, and they said goodbye, wishing each other a good weekend.

When Reyna arrived home twenty minutes later, she fired up her laptop and saw a new email from Annabeth Chase.

Attached to it was the rough draft of Annabeth’s paper, but the most interesting part came in the body of the message:

_Coffee tomorrow?_


End file.
